The same view still exists today as the Blue Mountains Heritage area is the largest
protected area of high diversity eucalypts on the continent. More than one million
acres of National Park contain ninety-one different eucalypts, a large number but still
only a little more than 10 per cent of total number of eucalyptus species in Australia.
View of the Jamison Valley at Wentworth Falls, Conrad Martens, Dixson Collection, State Library of NSWIt was in the Blue Mountains that Darwin encountered a group of Australian
Aborigines still living in the wild. Speculating on their future he wrote in his diary:
At Sunset, by my good fortune a party of a score of the Aboriginal Blacks passed, each carrying
in their accustomed manner a bundle of spears and other weapons. By giving the leading man
a shilling they were easily detained and threw their spears for my amusement. They were all
partly clothed and several could speak a little English; their countenances were good-humoured
and pleasant and they appeared far from the degraded beings as usually represented ... It is very
curious thus to see in the midst of civilized people, savages, although harmless, wandering about
without knowing where they will sleep and gaining their livelihood by hunting in the woods
... As the difficulty of procuring food increases, so must their wandering habits; and hence the
population, without any apparent deaths from famine, is repressed in a manner extremely sudden
compared to what happens in civilized countries.(^86) Where Australia Collides with Asia
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